Injury from electrical shock is possible whenever operating or working in close proximity to electrical equipment. When a person's body completes a circuit, connecting a power source with the ground, an electrical burn or injury occurs. Fatal injuries may result from high-voltage exposure. For this reason electrical safety is important in both work and home environments. While professionals that service or work in close proximity to live power lines are trained in proper handling procedures, many injuries and deaths occur each year. Furthermore, untrained individuals are often exposed live power lines and the prospect of electrocution. Further, many residential fires are the result of unsafe or crowded electrical wiring.
A common place for someone to be injured by electrical shock is a breaker panel given the amount of work done at electrical panels and the likelihood of numerous electrical conductors in close proximity to the work being done. Generally, a breaker panel is a metal box in which multiple circuits are connected to a power source. The breaker panel also houses the individual circuit breakers that serve to automatically interrupt the flow of an electrical current. A breaker panel includes a main breaker which receives the power from the main service lines and provides a means for interrupting or cutting power to the facility or devices serviced by the breaker panel. Contact with the main service lines, as well as conductors exposed within the breaker panel can result in injury or death.
Blown fuses or tripped breakers are often perceived as the reason that electrical equipment ceases to operate. In an attempt to remedy the situation, trained and untrained individuals often seek out the breaker panels and investigate within. A variety of adverse conditions, such as absence of adequate lighting and improper tools, can compromise a person's ability to evaluate and work within the breaker panel. Unfortunately, the conditions outlined above, alone or in combination, can result in injury or death. Finally, crowded or improper wiring in breaker panels is sometimes a source of electrical fires.
Therefore, what is needed in the art is a breaker panel that includes safety devices that safeguard against inadvertent contact with live wires, that minimizes the potential for electrical faults and can aid in more orderly wiring of panels.